“Death creates an economy that makes life precious. One of the ways of naming that preciousness is friendship.”
Stanley Hauerwas

WOULD JESUS BE THOUGHT UNAUSTRALIAN?

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Christian beliefs and Values

Christian beliefs spring from and circle around the person of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that God came into the world in the person of Jesus, so that human beings have a means by which to know and be known by the God of the universe. The incarnation (for that is what we call God taking on human form) was for a particular purpose—to reveal God to us, and to restore God’s creation (human beings and everything else) to right relations with God. That’s Christmas.

The other key to Christian belief is Easter—when Jesus was crucified for sedition, but in his death and subsequent resurrection in fact enabled this broken and sinful world to be restored to God. Christ’s death and resurrection inform the Christian understanding of human life and human values. 
  ‘Would Jesus be seen as unAustralian?’ The answer is yes, and no.
 
 

  By it, sins may be forgiven.
By it, peace with God can be established.
By it, God shows us what love is—sacrifice, even for one’s enemies.
By it, there is hope of new life, even beyond the grave, sharing in the new life that Christ was given.
By this death and resurrection, a new order has begun in which God’s character shapes human living, and the spiritual qualities that God gives those who believe in Christ should be seen by those around them, who want to give glory to God as a result of what they have seen. 		  

Whether or not these ideas are new to you, or perhaps you just haven’t thought about them for a while I hope you might begin to see just how significant they are for the Christian understanding of human life.

But what can I leave you with in answer to our question, ‘Are Australian values Christian values? Would Jesus be seen as unAustralian?’ The only way I can see to answer the question, ‘Are Australian values Christian values?’ is to say, ‘Some are, some aren’t.’ That’s my answer. ‘Would Jesus be seen as unAustralian?’ The answer is yes, and no.

This moderate response (some might say fence-sitting!) steers a sensible path between the remote poles of theocracy and separatism. Between expecting the country to be in step with Jesus and Christians, and Christians having no input at all to how we live as a society.

The moderate response admits that there is a Christian story in the background of much of Australian life—for instance, in our approaches to work, law and education (‘tools, rules and schools’). There is a Christian heritage.

But it also recognizes that Australia is far from ‘a Christian nation’—that title should be reserved purely for the Christian church, and Christian people; those followers of Christ whom theologians teach have become the ‘people of God’ and who see the awaited ‘new heavens and new earth’ described in the biblical Book of Revelation, chapters 21-22, as their true home.

Some Australian values are Christian values. And some aren’t. I propose, then, a series of ‘Some’ statements to guide the discussion on Christianity and values.

1.  Some Australian values are things Christians admire
Of course they are. There is so much in the Australian spirit that Christians want to celebrate and be proud of. We might include here a version of ‘mateship’ that stands by a friend in the toughest of circumstances. Perhaps Christians would call it ‘lovingkindness’ or ‘brotherliness/sisterliness’ instead. But whatever we call it, it’s a part of Australian culture that matches really well with what Christians value.

Other contenders include an idea of fairness (‘the fair go’), respect for individual freedom and individual responsibility, and pursuing peace. The goal of peace is something that Aussies and Christians share.
  There is so much in the Australian spirit that Christians want to celebrate and be proud of.
 
 

2. Some Australian values can be traced back to Christian ideas

Here I am thinking particularly of something like caring for those in desperate need, a concept which in Australian welfare history springs directly from the words of Jesus in the Gospels (e.g. Matthew 25:35, where Jesus says the way his followers treat those in need will reflect the way they treat him. If you did something for the ‘least’ of your brothers, you did it for him).

Often, such values can be traced back to some sort of Christian origin. Not always, but often.

3. Some Australian values are not Christian values.

Just think of the flipside of the examples in our first two statements. One example is sticking with your mates, regardless of the cost to your actual sister/wife/children. Another is ignoring those in desperate need, as appears to have been the case with Delmae Barton up at Griffith University, lying for six hours in a bus stop after a stroke, without a helping hand being raised. When Australians act in this way—Christian or not—the Christians have a tiny, underused word that summarises the behaviour: ‘sin’.

We tend only to mention positive values when we draw up values list, but all of us could equally easily reel off a list of values Australians hold that are less than honourable. Ripping off the boss. Getting away with it. Doing the bare minimum. She’ll be right—when she won’t be right unless we get up off our backsides and do something quick! Ignoring the stranger. Using up more than our fair share.
  Christians don’t really expect people to live up to their values.
 
 

The head of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor Ian Lowe, recently identified consumerism as Australia’s new unofficial national religion. And I suspect he’s correct. We worship at Westfields. In the chapel of David Jones. Now there’s an Australian value for our times that you will struggle to find in the Scriptures.

Christians don’t really expect people to live up to their values. Christians expect human beings to be selfish, fearful, angry and ignorant. We’re not pleased about it, but we’re realistic. Because we know that’s what we are like, too.

Somewhere within the values discussion, it needs to be noted that there are certain values which society implicitly or explicitly encourages and supports, that reflect badly on the human race. These are things for which Christians use the word ‘sin’.

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